6W Lewis Padgett. New York: Gnome Press, 1953. First Edition
Notes
Lewis Padgett was the celebrated collaborative pseudonym of husband-and-wife writing duo Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, two influential voices of the Golden Age of science fiction. Writing together seamlessly, the couple frequently blended Kuttner’s talent for fast-paced narrative pacing and dark satire with Moore’s mastery of rich psychological depth and sensory imagery. Because they often shared a single typewriter and edited each other's paragraphs inline, they adopted the Padgett pen name (derived from their mothers' maiden names) to bypass pulp magazine restrictions against publishing multiple stories by the same author in a single issue. As pillars of the Astounding Science Fiction circle, their joint efforts elevated the literary standards of mid-century sci-fi, laying the groundwork for complex, sociological themes in speculative literature.
Published by the legendary specialty house Gnome Press in a first printing of 4,000 copies, this book stands as a premier example of a science fiction "fix-up" novel. It stitches together four immensely popular 1945 magazine novellas with a fifth concluding story written in 1953 to form a cohesive, sweeping narrative arc. Set two generations after a nuclear holocaust has left the Earth scarred by radiation, the plot follows the struggle of the "Baldies"—a minority subspecies of hairless, telepathic mutants who find themselves violently hunted and feared by normal humans. Exploring profound themes of institutional prejudice, generational trauma, and peaceful coexistence, this 210-page hardcover features vibrant, iconic wrap-around dust jacket art by Ric Binkley, making original copies bound in the publisher's blue boards highly prized.
Description
Blue cloth boards with bright original dustwrapper in good condition. Some fogging to dustwrapper and partly removed ownership sticker to upper cover. Same sticker partly removed on preliminary fly leaf over a stamp and ink inscriptions to same page. One like in blue ink written on half title and title page. Some softening to head and foot of spine and edgewear. Good condition overall.